Way of the Knights

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"OOOOOOOHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!"

A massive eruption of cheers and whistles threated to deafen them. The sheer excitement and roars of the crowd shook the entire stadium akin to an earthquake.

"Holy crap! That was awesome!"

"One! Two! Three! Fantastic!"

"Excellent teamwork!!"

"That was insane!"

"These kids are terrifying!"

Even the influential elders are too surprised from the results. In their minds, they guessed that these kids must've been a team for a while now since there is no way that they could cooperate like that if they weren't. Their thoughts were correct.

"The 4th tests ends here. You kids take a brief rest while the judges comes up with a result." Carl announced and waved his hand.

Last masked man standing could only smile wryly under his mask and bow towards Carl, he helped his teammates up and went down the arena. It would be useless for him to remain fighting anyway since there's on him left, and based on the teamwork of the kids, he stood no chance alone. The crew high five and bowed down before going down the arena, they then sat and recovered their energies while waiting for the deliberation.

At the Headmasters room.

"Atta boy Paul! Bwahahahaha!" Ian's uproarious laughter echoed at every corner of the room. It could be said that his mood went onto a drastic change eversince he and Paul talked. The father and son had nothing much to say, Paul didn't hold any grudges in his heart since he understood the situation very well. He just told him that he will gain his lost reputation back and become a splendid knight.

No one jeered at him. How could they? In all honesty, if their kids were to perform as brilliantly as Paul then they might feel the same way. All they felt right now is jealousy, envy, shock and admiration. Who would've thought that the little rascal of the Headmaster-who had given him an immense headache before-had been extremely low-key?

"Is there really a need for deliberation?" The Crown Prince smiled wryly, "Our opinions might appear extremely biased but everyone saw how they perform right?"

The Crown Prince might not show it deliberately but he's rooting for Luna since she is his little sister. Paul was obviously rooting for Paul and Leon was rooting for Mark. If they didn't perform impressively and they allowed them to pass, then that would be extremely biased. But seeing the coordinations that this kids presented, how could they say anything? If they aren't fit to pass then who is?

"I vote pass for all of the participants." Leon commented on the side, he didn't say much be the smile on his face says it all.

"I too, vote pass for the participants." The Crown Prince laughed and voted.

"That makes it three then, unanimous decision. All of the participants will go through the 5th test."

Ian sent a voice transmission towards Carl along with their votes. Carl wasn't so surprised after hearing this. He then made the announcement shortly after.

"The judges finished the deliberation. All participants passed the 4th test and will proceed towards the last test.

There was another wave of cheers and applause all throughout the whole stadium. The crew smiled to each other and stepped onto the stage once more.

"For the last part of the test. Prowess. To be more precise, combat. We've seen a little bit of how you fight earlier, but now it's time to see just how you will perform in a one versus one fight. You can choose to either fight a beast or a human for the test. If you choose beasts, kill it. If you choose a human, then defeat them. That's half of the test won, the other half will fall under the jurisdiction of the judges."

"You can now state your pick. Afterwards, we will start the final test." As Carl announced this, it didn't take long before the crew made their decision.

"Beast." - Anne

"Beast." - Mark

"Beast." - Ellen

"Beast." - Paul

"Beast." - Luna

"Human." - Raven

"Once the tests starts, you are no longer allowed to change your picks. Are you sure with your decisions?" Carl asked.

"Yes!" The crew unhesitatingly answered.

"Very well, 5 beasts and 1 Human. I now announce, the final Test. Begin!" Carl announced and smacked his cane into the arena. "The first fight will immediately commence. Those who aren't participating should go down the arena."

With that said, aside from Luna the rest of the team went down. Anne heaved a deep sigh and drew out her bow. The arena parted and a platform rose, as it rose up, one could hear the noise of metal clangs.

It was then that Anne's enemy could be seen by everyone.

The beast was furiously struggling to get rid of the chains that bound it. It's body is covered in glossy strands of red fur, it's upper body looked like that of humans, more specifically, an old wrinkly lady. It's lower body is covered thick red fur and instead of a feet, it has claws. And instead of arms, it has wings of similar color and feathers. It's wing spans for at least 4 to 5 meters, it's eyes were completely red and was constantly shrieking and glaring at every human that it saw.

Because of it's intimidating presence, most of the common folk didn't even dare to look at it in the eyes. Each time it shrieked, some people will instinctively flinch or grimace because of fear.

"Is that..."

"Yeah, a Harpy." One of the people amongst the crowd confirmed, "It's on a Soldier-level too. It seems that she's going to be at a disadvantage for this fight."

"A Harpy is capable of flight, it's quick and nimble too. Add the fact that it's very aggressive to the mix and it is too troublesome. She's an archer right? She won't have an easy time with this..."

As the crowd discussed amongst themselves. Anne remained calm and began analyzing her battle tactics.

Carl similarly retreated from the arena and signalled for the staff to release the Harpy.

As soon as the beast felt that the chains were dislodged, it immediately soared into the air and attempted to fly away as fat as it could, sadly it failed to do so since the formation worked against it.

*Shoo!*

Just as it was about to try ramming to the formation, the Harpy sensed danger incoming from it's back. It flapped it's wing instinctively, the arrow still hit but it just grazed through it's cheeks. Anne clicked her tongue in displeasure, if the harpy didn't evade then her arrow would surely pierce it's skull.

*Scree!!*

With a loud shriek, the harpy turned it's gazed on the young girl below. It was incensed and provoked, and because of it's aggressive nature, it decided to go after her since it can't break the formation just yet anyway.

It soared through the air and swoop down, it's sharp claws glimmered and aimed at Anne's head.

The crowd watched with bated breath, as the Harpy closed in, Anne suddenly moved and bend her body down while also preparing a shot. The claws of the harpy missed her by mere inches and before it went past her, she released the shot that she prepared earlier.

The arrow grazed it's thigh and the Harpy released another series of furious screeches. Anne pulled her bow once more and this time she shot several arrows. The Harpy easily evaded all of this and charged towards her while twisting and turning mid-air to avoid the next of her arrows.

The Harpy was quick and shortened the distanced in seconds, it opened it's jaws wanting to take a bit out of Anne's flesh this time around. But once again, mere inches away from Anne, she suddenly jumped and somersaulted over the charging harpy. As she tumbled in the air, she shot an arrow that landed on the back of the harpy.

*Boom!*

The impact of arrow caused the harpy to fall flat on the arena, it released a series of painful screeches that grated on one's ears. The Harpy was incredibly upset and angry, it tried to crawl and flap it's wing to charge at her once more but before it could even do so...

*Shoo!"

A sharp arrow whistled across the air and penetrated it's wing. The Harpy released a furious howl as it's ability to fly had been taken away, it turned around and glared at the human but it's expression immediately switch into panic as it saw Anne drawing her bow once more.

The Harpy ducked and twisted it's body, the arrow missed so it now had a chance to attack her again, but because it's wing was crippled it's speed was clearly slower than before. Anne still wore that confident expression on her face even though she saw the Harpy closing in. She drew her bow once more and decided to wait for the right opportunity to release it.

Once the distance between then shrank, the harpy extended it's claws towards her but it was met by Anne's arrow instead. Wasting no time, she charged and slammed her knee on it's stomach. The beast kneeled down in pain and as soon as it raised it's head...

The image of an arrow was the last thing it saw.